Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) summed up the frustration of several colleagues at a gathering of the Republican Steering Committee. He chastised Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) for how they have waged their aggressive push to defund ObamaCare.

Their rhetoric, Coburn said, has been used in television and radio ads attacking other Republican senators.

“He said to Cruz and Lee, ‘Don’t pretend to be naïve. You know outside groups are using what you’re doing as ammo against your colleagues,’ ” a Republican who attended the meeting said…

Another Republican senator told The Hill that McConnell has paid too much deference to Lee and Cruz.

“What gets me is he’ll look at 46 [Republican] senators and say, ‘What do Mike and Ted want to do?’ What are we, chopped liver?” the lawmaker said.